Groupware utilizing recent LAN or intranet technologies has been widely used so that more and more users share communication or information. The groupware has been required to have a variety of functions and to be easy to use. Therefore, it is necessary to display a variety of data items in a groupware server in a list so that the data items are easy to recognize visually and to use.
In the groupware, information of data items of a variety of attributes such as MAIL, SCHEDULE, MEMO, FORUM, LIBRARY, and DOCUMENT simultaneously exists. A user may select necessary information therefrom and store the selected information in a folder used exclusively for the selected information. Then, the user may reuse the selected information. In such a folder, a large number of data items of different attributes are stored.
A conventional display apparatus, when displaying a large number of data items of different attributes in a list, displays the data items uniformly in a list format.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a conventional list using large icons. In this list, data items are displayed in large icons that are arranged successively from top to bottom in rows. Each of data item attributes is represented by a corresponding large icon type. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a conventional list using small icons. In this list, data items are displayed in small icons that are arranged successively from top to bottom in rows. Each of data item attributes is represented by a corresponding small icon type.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a conventional list in a list format. In this list, each data item is displayed by a set of a small icon and its name arranged in a row. The rows of the sets are arranged from top to bottom. Each of data item attributes is represented by a corresponding small icon type. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a conventional list in a detailed format. In this list, each data item is displayed by a set of a small icon, its name, size, and modified date arranged in a row. The rows of the sets are arranged from top to bottom. Each of data item attributes is represented by a corresponding small icon type.
In a conventional display apparatus, a data item list is displayed all by using only large icons or all by using only small icons, and data item attributes are only distinguished by icon types. However, data items of a single attribute are displayed all in the same icon size that is predetermined to be large or small. For instance, in a list of data items of a folder storing only mail data, the data item of each mail data is displayed in a large icon, and in a list of data items of a folder storing only memo data, the data item of each memo data is displayed in a small icon. Therefore, a list of data items of different attributes and a list of data items of a single attribute are displayed in different display formats, thus making it difficult for users to understand those lists.
Further, in the list in the display format shown in FIG. 4, the contents displayed in each column are fixedly determined. Therefore, in displaying data items of different attributes, only somewhat common items such as name, size, type, and modified data can be displayed, thus causing a problem that all the desired information to be displayed of each data item cannot be displayed simultaneously in the list.